Despite significant advances in diagnosis and therapy, cardiovascular events remain a major common cause of morbidity and mortality. Thus, prevention of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke is an area of major public health importance.
Screening tests for several risk factors for future cardiovascular events have been described and are in clinical use in the detection of human subjects at high risk. Such screening tests include, for example, cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), and, more recently, C-reactive protein (CRP) screening tests. In addition, human subjects with risk factors for cardiovascular event(s) are prescribed therapies to reduce the risk of a future cardiovascular event. For example, human subjects with abnormally high cholesterol and/or LDLC levels are frequently prescribed a class of drugs called statins to reduce cholesterol levels to reduce the risk of a future cardiovascular event.
The beneficial effects, however, of such agents in human subjects vary in magnitude among different human subjects. Additionally, a large number of cardiovascular disorders occur in subjects with apparently low to moderate risk profiles, and the ability to identify such patients is limited. At this time only a few tests are available to determine whether certain therapies with cardiovascular agents are effective or are expected to be more or less beneficial in reducing future cardiovascular event(s). Thus, there is a need for improved tests and approaches to therapy in human subjects.